Sefko: Missing chance at upset is what has Mavs upset ... and rightly so

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Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer

Dallas teammates congratulate OJ Mayo (25) after his three-pointer sent the game into overtime at 105-105 during the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball game at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Friday, January 18, 2013. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Mavericks have progressed to the
point where they can win four of five games, and all they think about is the one
that got away.

That’s the one they needed the most, of course. When you fall 10 games below
.500 before the season reaches the halfway point, you are left with only one
option if you want to be taken seriously the rest of the way.

You have to win some games you’re not supposed to, like Friday’s overtime
heartbreaker against Oklahoma City.

That was a game the Mavericks were predicted to lose. But they put themselves
in a great position to win before Kevin Durant drilled them in overtime. It was
a game the Mavericks very much feel they should have won.

But they didn’t. So the search for unexpected victories continues.

“We’re just in the hole too much to look at the positives,” Elton Brand said
Saturday. “We can’t be proud and happy about being close and getting to
overtime. We’re behind the 8-ball. We need wins now.”

That’s because of all those losses last month and early in January.

“Now, we have to win some games,” Brand said. “We lost some we should have
won, and now we have to win games like this in order to compete for a playoff
spot, and it hurts worse when you’re this close.”

Letting a game like Oklahoma City slip away in overtime when it was there for
the taking is a moment the Mavericks could very well rue in the long run.

In fact, since nearly 20 percent of their games at the season’s midpoint have
gone to overtime, and the Mavericks are 1-8 in those games, they will look back
on those in a couple of months and know they left victories on the table.

But that does them no good now. They are smarting from the 117-114 setback
against the Thunder, but have a road game Sunday evening at Orlando that will be
their last game until Friday. That’s a long time to sit on two losses in a row
that would officially stonewall the momentum built in their four-game winning
streak.

“We can either sit back and talk about how we didn’t win eight overtime
games, or we can start another streak,” point guard Darren Collison said.

“We’re in a position right now where we can’t take any possessions off. I’m
glad we competed [against the Thunder]. We had a chance to win the game. But now
we got to move on, win the next game and try to put some wins together. That’s
all.”

There are things to like about the Mavericks. They have been in every game
since the calendar turned to 2013. They are 5-5 in January. Three of the losses
were in overtime, the other two were by six points each at Utah and the
Clippers.

“Considering where we were three weeks ago, when we got blown out five times
in a row or whatever it was when I first got back, I think we’ve improved
tremendously,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “And we still got another gear to go to.
We’re going to keep pushing and keep watching the little things we can improve
on.

“I like the fight in us.”

And that’s the one thing the Mavericks can control. They were soft touches
too many times during a dreadful December.

Now, opponents recognize they are in for a battle. That in itself is part of
the battle in the NBA or any other sport.

“There are going to be bumps in the road,” said Vince Carter, who had a
season-best 29 points against the Thunder. “We just have to keep going. We’re
going to lose games just because of lack of experience together.

“But the thing I like is we’re giving ourselves a chance to win against good
teams. Now we just have to learn how to close it out. That’s the next step for
us.”

The problem is they need to take that step against some teams they aren’t
necessarily expected to beat if they expect to make legitimate inroads back to
the playoff picture.

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